Poverty Eradication

1 May 2009: “On the Frontlines of Climate Change,” an Internet forum launched by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in partnership with the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Secretariat of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), has issued a call for project proposals. Funding, provided with the assistance of Denmark, will be dedicated to community-level projects showcasing local experiences with climate impacts and adaptation.

20 April 2009: In a statement delivered to the International Conference on Gender and Disaster Risk Reduction, UN Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro highlighted links between the issues of gender, disaster risk reduction, climate change and poverty reduction. The Conference, which was organized by the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction Secretariat (UN/ISDR), convened from 20-22 April 2009, in Beijing, China.

20 April 2009: The Ministers of Agriculture of the G8 countries and Brazil, China, India, Mexico, South Africa, Argentina, Australia and Egypt convened from 18-20 April 2009, in Cison di Valmarino, Italy, to discuss food security under the theme “The World Food Emergency.” The meeting was also attended by the Heads of UN agencies that are members of the UN Secretary-General's High-Level Task Force on Food Security and other intergovernmental bodies.

April 2009: The UN Development Programme (UNDP) will launch, at the end of April 2009, the Climate Community (UNDPCC), a knowledge platform to promote capacity development of policy makers working directly with activities related to climate change adaptation and mitigation.

17 April 2009: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon spoke at a colloquium at Princeton University, US, on “The Imperative for a New Multilateralism,” in which he proposed focusing on securing global public goods, including global financial and economic stability, a major push against poverty, restoring peace and stability, addressing climate change, advancing global health, countering terrorism, and ensuring disarmament and non-proliferation.

3 April 2009: The 22nd session of the Governing Council of the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) was held in Nairobi, Kenya, from 30 March- 3 April 2009, and brought together close to 800 delegates from 104 countries, representing national governments, NGOs, and local governments and their associations. The Governing Council adopted a resolution on cities and climate change and requested the UN General Assembly to convene a third UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development.

3 April 2009: The UN Development Programme (UNDP) presented the results of the ART Initiative, which was designed by a group of UN Agencies under UNDP's leadership (namely the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the UN Development Fund for Women, the World Health Organization and UNOPS) to promote the strategic and operational articulation among the development cooperation institutions and programmes in support of national policies and local dynamics of governance and local development.

April 2009: The second issue of the UN Human Settlements Programme's (UN-HABITAT) new flagship magazine, Urban World, features climate change as its main theme. The 92-page issue addresses, among other topics, how cities can keep their ecological footprint to a minimum through better land use planning and building codes, the role of construction in reducing emissions, and how climate change is not gender neutral.